Author's Note: Howdy my peeps! Tell me the truth did you miss me? well here is the dealio…I thought it was unfair to ask you to choose between the stories when you didn't know what you'd be getting into…relatively. So I'm giving you samples. Chapter 1 of all three stories comin' your way, straight from my little room. The reason that it's three and not four is because me and the M/A are having a lovers spat, and it's gotten ugly. I have a couple days of doing absolutely nothing because the 'rents can't come get me till the 11th and well that's a while from now. So you the story that you like best gets done first…they will all be written! You're just deciding in what order. Ok. Try and review all of them just let me know which you want to see first. Oh by the way…the tarts thing, I was doing that. It's strangely more satisfying then hurling cheese out my window. ::shrugs:

Review! Please! ::sad puppy dog eyes::

That's enough for me

Chapter 1: Visiting in the Freak Nation

~*~

Happiness, it's been no friend to me
But forever after ain't what it's all cracked up to be

~*~

Alec grit his teeth as he watched Max walk away in a swirl of ebony hair, he took in a loud breath through his nose and fought the urge to strangle her. He looked at Joshua, who had been watching the exchange quietly, "how is it always my fault?"

"Alec get in trouble a lot."

"I noticed, but I've been good," he whined. "Why does she blame me?"

"Little fella unhappy," he said trying to be helpful.

"That's not my fault, if she would just get her head out of her…"

"Alec!" Max called from across the warehouse where she was talking to the Arctic transgenic that they had saved two days ago.

"Yeah?" He called back giving Joshua a glare.

"Can you get over here?"

"Whatcha need?" He asked as he made his way over past a transgenic that looked like he was more panther then human.

Mole answered from behind him, "pursuit in progress. They have a transgenic cornered in sector five."

"Let's go," Max said smiling at him sweetly before brushing past him.

"Yeah, let's blaze," he said dryly, clapping Mole on the back affectionately. "We'll be back in a bit." With that he followed Max's swaying backside to their motorcycles.

They were off without another word, Rich, an X5 that Alec didn't know too well, following behind on his own bike. All three exchanged glances after they made it into sector 5, Alec put a hand up to his ear pushing on the new ear piece that Dix had come up with for them to be able to communicate more easily. "Where are they? We're on Fourth Street."

"East of you," came the static-y reply. "You're not too far off, you should be hearing gun fire soon enough."

As if on command he did, and motioned to Max, smirking wickedly as he felt the surge of adrenaline flow through his blood. One thing he could say about the new transgenic paranoia was the chance to literally, and figuratively, stretch his legs. The routine was simple and they had it down, he and Rich would run interference, picking cops off while Max grabbed the transgenic on the run and made a break for it through the hole that we would make for them. So far the police hadn't figured out how to stop them.

Alec flashed a smile a Max, knowing that she wasn't enjoying this half as much as he was. She really needed to lighten up. But to his surprise she smiled back and revved her engine as they took off past the sector cops.

The gates to Terminal City opened smoothly and swallowed them, leaving the 'ordinaries' to stand unhappily outside. "Welcome to Terminal City," Max said the normal greeting with a smile and nodded towards Mole. "He'll take care of you."

"That was fun," Alec said rubbing his hands together happily. "Aw, come on," he called when he watched her roll her eyes. "Admit it, Maxie, you enjoy the chase just as much as I do."

"I have work to do," she shook her head and walked off but Alec was proud to note that she was smiling as she left.

"Max!" Joshua called from the warehouse.

"Yeah?" Alec stood listening to the exchange.

"Logan on TV." The flash of a smile on Max's face was all Alec needed to see before he decided to head out.

"I got work too, funny enough," he said to himself before waving to Joshua and getting back on his bike to head to JamPony.

"Alec," Max called, "tell O.C. that I'll be at Crash tonight."

"All right," with a nod he was off. He navigated the streets easily and was back at JamPony in less then ten minutes and almost breathed a sigh of relief when he walked in and saw that Normal wasn't presently working on a transgenic free America.

"It's golden boy," he called and tossed a package his way. "Run at Broad and Eagle in Sector 7."

"I got it," Alec called as he caught the package and nodded at Original Cindy who was coming up to him slowly.

"Hey, you seen my boo?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, said she'd be at Crash tonight."

"Well, I got some stuff I need to tell y'all." She looked over her shoulder to where Sketchy was quietly going through his locker.

Alec looked from Sketchy to her as his eyebrows pulled together slowly, "something wrong?"

She smiled and shook her head her hair bouncing softly with the movement, "no, it's all good."

"Good," he smirked and turned to deliver the package.

Normal's voice followed him, "Careful, you're going near Terminal City, watch out for transgenics!" Alec just laughed and waved at him without turning around.

~*~

"Bo-ored," Jondy yelled into the way too quiet apartment, her lips forming into a soft pout as she stretched slowly, letting one muscle after another tense and release like a cat just waking up from a nap. She lazily propped her feet up on the kitchen table of her newest apartment, an abandoned building in Sector 7 of Seattle.

She'd gotten a place close to the most action, just a block away from Terminal City. She couldn't say exactly why she had chosen to come here of all places and of all times, while the city around her went mad. She smiled, leaning precariously on her chair to reach for the bag of sweet tart hearts on her table without dropping her legs, not worrying about her own motives and confident enough in her own instincts not to question them. Still the present state of the city was a little depressing and she had to frown at the sad events going on around her.

As if in answer to her thoughts she heard the heavy north city accent of a Seattle native come over the TV proclaiming his disgust at the thought of one of those transgenic freaks dating his daughter. She snorted softly as she popped a red heart into her mouth, "bet you've checked out a transgenic chick or two," she said to the unhearing TV. Long blue fingernails picked delicately through the tarts in the shape of hearts until they found a green one.

"Tarts in the shape of hearts," she said to herself. "I crack myself up," she informed the tart before sending it flying through the air and out her kitchen window. She picked out a handful, careful to make sure they were all green and tossed them and cried, "attack of the killer tarts!"

"Home wreckers," she laughed at herself and then whimpered quietly, flipping gold and blue hair into her face and then behind her again. She rocked back and forth as her eyes wandered around the kitchen and into the living room looking for something, anything, to take away the boredom. Something that experience taught her was that boredom always led to bad things, like very unhappy authority figures.

She smirked and folded her hands behind her head proudly, "but now I'm an authority figure." When they had all heard the news about Zack the decision had been unanimous to make her the new CO. "It's gonna be a bitch getting' in trouble with myself." It was going to be hard to sit back and laugh at Zane taking her suggestion to set all the animals from the pound free. And how was she going to convince Syl to travel across the country just to get some nookie from Krit and not tell her? She was still laughing about the sudden upping of status, though the reason for it was still a sore point.

She missed Zack just then more than anything just then. The fifth of every two months was worse than any other time; it was his day to come visit her. She sighed and looked down at the sweet tarts, chunking more out the window, "ok, it's official…I gotta get out of this place."

She rubbed her hands together and narrowed her eyes tossing aside the contemplation of authority for the more important questions. What should she do to get rid of this annoying boredom?

She hadn't gotten around to stocking her kitchen with food since she moved in two days ago. Her books were in San Francisco sitting in neat little boxes in Syl's spare bedroom along with a portable video game she had stolen a year ago. She'd already polished her entire collection of knives after making a large column, in the middle of her living room, into a target. The apartment was ill equipped to relieve her boredom and the Seattle streets were rapidly turning into a danger zones, everyone on the look out for one of those mutant freaks.

"Hmm…" she smirked as she once again looked around her apartment, "Adventure, danger, real food, oh yes, the Seattle streets it is." She grabbed her denim jacket and was heading for the door without a second thought.

When the door closed behind her however she stopped in her track. "I told me that when I get bored bad things happen…Did I listen to me? No, of course not. 'Cause I'm a little bi-atch." She took a deep breath and shook her head before smiling. "I have now scolded myself I can go out with a clear conscience."

She took in a deep breath when the cold winter air hit her, promising snow before nightfall. "Beautiful," she said wiggling her eyebrows as she stuck her hands deep into her pockets and started singing happily to herself.

"She burns friends like a piece of wood, and she's jealous of me because she never could hold herself up without a spine and she'll look me up when she's doing fine. Because the rage it burns like Chinese torture. She's just someone's favorite daughter, spoilt and ugly as she willingly slaughters friends and enemies they're all the same. They'll burn her name and crush her fame." She ignored the glances her way as she slipped through the crowd with the languid grace of a cat; "She'll break a promise as a matter of course because she thinks it's fun to have no remorse. She gets what she wants and then walks away and she doesn't give a fuck what you might say. Because it cuts her up like Irish mortar. Mother's pride is what we taught her, spoiled and petty as we happily taunt her. Friend or enemy we're all to blame"

The frequent glances in her direction didn't bother her, she had been getting them since she had escaped from Manticore, the covert looks in her direction from under heavy lids and the soft smile of people who saw her face and never bothered to look any deeper. "She'll burn us bad. She'll flaunt her flame. She'll make us remember, remember her name. If she sits still like she knows she could, she could win this game and be the queen for good. Save herself up for the cream of the crop, then she'll look us up when she's ready to stop." She kept her eyes down, though, at the average man's chest level because when the rest of her just got noticed and admired it was her eyes that people remembered. The azure blue of the sky that split second before dawn, full of electricity and framed by the thick decisive strokes of long black lashes; they held the spark of something inhuman and powerful.

The sign of any true Manticorian was the visible manifestation of the line between the two different worlds of sanity and insanity. Some of them had it more defined than others but they all had it just the same, even Tinga had had it and she had been the most put together of all of them. Jondy had it in spades, and it was hard to look into her eyes and not remember a time when man stood shivering in caves, even for her. People remembered her eyes.

So she kept them down even as she nodded her head to the music that she had just noticed she wasn't singing anymore. She did a small dance step and smirked when a man passing by applauded her.

She smiled as her eyes swept across the street where people had set up stalls to sell knick-knacks, miracle cures, 90's memorabilia, and food. She was grinning when she started for the booth that she could smell from across the street but her smile dipped when her eyes caught a group of men holding out tin cans asking for donations to rid the neighborhood of mutants. She watched as a little woman with stooped shoulders and white hair, looking sweet and grandmotherly, put a five dollar bill into the can and smiled up at him.

Jondy suddenly felt sick to her stomach, she didn't want to walk by the crowd of men or the little old lady. She turned on her heel and started back the way she had come swallowing hard against the upheaval of her stomach. She had to fight the urge to run but she knew that would attract unwanted attention.

Usually she could find something funny about any situation but something about this set her off. Something about a sweet little old lady gladly giving money to help fund her death was mind numbing. It was the Salem witch trials, the holocaust all over again. "Stupid people, don't they ever learn from their own mistakes?"

Someone ran into her shoulder hard enough to spin her around. She looked up into blue-green eyes that, for a second, seemed to take up her whole world before she could focus on the rest of him. Full pink lips, creamy skin, tousled dark blond hair, and a lean muscular body no doubt about it he was magnificent…and staring at her.

Her breath was coming too fast as she looked up at him and he hadn't moved since his eyes had met with hers. With a shake of her head she turned away. She could hear the sharp intake of breath from behind her and it took everything she had to not look back over her shoulder and catch one more glimpse of him.

She was relearning how to breathe when she suddenly heard the shouting, "he's one of them!"

"He was with the other one!"

"Teach him a lesson."

"Get the freak!"

Jondy turned to find the blonde backing into a corner and she was running even as she saw a man come up behind him and bring a pipe to the back of his head. Blue and gold hair flew out behind her like a war banner as she caught the pipe before it could land again. "Can I play too?"

Coming soon to a theater near you - Chapter 2: I'm so good